A wide horseshoe bay with two textures of sand and calm, shallow turquoise water.
Tanjung Aan is the big horseshoe bay east of Kuta, and the coarse sand at its eastern end is genuinely unusual. The grains are three to four millimetres across and almost perfectly round, and they are not mineral sand at all. Thin-section work published in the Indonesian geologists' journal Berita Sedimentologi identifies them as the shells of a large benthic foraminifer, Schlumbergerella floresiana. They are widely described online as ooids, which is wrong. Walk a couple of hundred metres along the bay and the beach turns to ordinary fine white sand, so you can feel the change under your feet in a single stroll.
The bay has changed a great deal since 2025 and it is worth arriving knowing that. Tanjung Aan sits inside the Mandalika special economic zone, and in July 2025 the state developer ITDC cleared roughly 180 family-run warungs from the back of the sand, an operation reported to have involved more than 700 police, military and private security personnel. United Nations human rights experts issued a statement in August 2025 calling on Indonesia to halt forced evictions at Mandalika. A five-star hotel on a 101,000 square metre plot was signed off for the headland in the same year. Reporting from December 2025 described cleared ground and construction debris behind the beach, with some displaced vendors selling from makeshift tables near the Bukit Merese end.
The water is still the reason to come. The inner cove is shallow, sand-bottomed and sheltered by reef, which makes it one of the more swimmable beaches on an otherwise exposed south coast. There are no lifeguards. At low tide the shallows retreat a long way, so aim for a rising or high tide if you want a proper swim rather than a paddle.
Cara ke sana
From Kuta town it is a 10 to 15 minute ride east on a paved road by scooter, car or Grab, and roughly 25 to 30 minutes from Lombok International Airport (LOP) if you are coming straight from a flight. Several tracks drop down to different points around the bay, each with a local attendant collecting a small cash charge, commonly around IDR 10,000 for a vehicle. Be aware that sources describe this charge inconsistently as an entrance fee and as parking, and no official Central Lombok tariff for it appears to be published, so treat it as an informal local collection and carry small notes. Bukit Merese rises directly from the western end of the bay, which is why almost everyone combines the two in one trip.
Masa terbaik
The dry season, roughly May to September, gives the calmest, clearest water and the most reliable sun. Mornings are quietest and the light is best late in the afternoon. There is one seasonal problem worth planning around: currents push marine debris onto this bay during the rainy months, and ITDC reported clearing 7.2 tonnes of it from Tanjung Aan between 16 October and 1 November 2025 alone, with daily cleaning crews working through the season. If you are visiting between late October and March, expect the sand to be less pristine than the photographs suggest.
Baik untuk diketahui
Bring cash in small notes for the parking collection and anything you buy, and bring your own water and shade. The row of warungs that used to sell coconuts and provide the only shelter on the sand was cleared in 2025, so provision is patchy and concentrated at one end of the bay. Water shoes help if you have tender feet, because the coarse foraminifera sand is like walking on dried peppercorns. There is no lifeguard service, so read the water before you swim out, and note that the shallows drain a long way at low tide. Photographs of swings and props on the beach are mostly pre-2025 and many of those installations went with the warungs that ran them.
The grains are the shells of a large single-celled marine organism, the benthic foraminifer Schlumbergerella floresiana, three to four millimetres across and almost perfectly spherical. A study in the journal Berita Sedimentologi identified them under thin section and specifically ruled out the common explanation that they are ooids. Only part of the bay has them; the rest is ordinary fine white sand.
Yes, substantially. In July 2025 around 180 warungs were cleared from the beach by the state developer ITDC as part of the Mandalika special economic zone, and a five-star hotel on a 101,000 square metre plot was signed off for the headland the same year. UN human rights experts issued a statement in August 2025 urging Indonesia to stop forced evictions at Mandalika. Expect construction and far fewer food stalls than older guides describe.
The inner cove is shallow, sand-bottomed and sheltered by an offshore reef, which makes it one of the easier beaches to swim on this coast. There are no lifeguards, and the shallows recede a long way at low tide, so a rising or high tide is better for an actual swim.
There is a small cash charge of around IDR 10,000 for a vehicle, collected by local attendants at the access tracks. Sources describe it variously as entry or parking and no published official tariff could be found, so treat it as an informal local fee and bring small notes.
The dry season, roughly May to September. During the rainy months currents deposit marine debris on the bay: ITDC reported removing 7.2 tonnes of it between 16 October and 1 November 2025, and runs daily cleaning crews through that period.
Tambahkannya ke dalam laluan merentasi Indonesia dan kami akan kira masa perjalanan dan kos antara setiap hentian.
Bina perjalanan anda
